February 17, 2014

What's Eating My Characters?

This is a difficult confession to make. After all, I live in San Francisco, a foodie's paradise. Knowing which restaurants are new and popular is an important city skill: one which I do not possess. Oh, I faked it for the two years I sat next to a foodie at work, but that didn't last. And I never went to the places my friend talked about. Please don't tell anyone, but I am not a foodie.

You see, I have a love-hate relationship with food. I'd give it up entirely if I could. Figuring out rather late in life how to eat healthy, nutritious food instead of mac-n-cheese and fruit pies is embarassing, darn it! So when it comes to my characters, I almost never have them eat.

It just slows down the action.

The view of Paris from the Jules Verne restaurant, smack-dab in the middle of the Eiffel Tower

That said, I have had an experience of foodie heaven. On my one and only trip to Paris, my husband and I ate at the Jules Verne, a very lovely restaurant nestled in the middle of the Tour Eiffel. That night was truly magical. At least five different people brought things to our table, small things with gorgeous colors and delicate or bold flavors. Froths of things you didn't know could be frothed delighted us.

Somehow, the host knew my name, and called out "Mrs. Berry?" in lovely French-accented English. He pulled me and my husband out of a small crowd of people and bustled us onto a 19th Century elevator for the ride up to the middle level of the tower. We've never felt so welcomed, so valued as customers. The staff made our night magical.

We opened and closed that restaurant. They paced things so that my husband and I had time for magical, wine-fueled conversations about the past and the future, literature, movies, and comic books. I'm pretty sure at one point we figured out World Peace--but then the rustic rolls basket came back around and we forgot all about everything but dinner.

I'm pretty sure, at some point, I'll write the dickens out of a food scene. It'll move the story forward, reveal character, reinforce the theme and help prove the premise. Until the day I need that scene, though, I'm much more likely to send my characters off the page to eat.

What do you think? Do you have to see characters eat to believe they are real?

On the whole, I completely agree that characters eating/drinking can be off stage somewhere and just slows things down when your carefully crafted words can be put to better use.

Unless, of course, there's something about it that adds something to the character. It might add dimension and/or knowledge - Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes/John Watson sprang to mind when I first read your question. For some characters, the ritual of morning coffee/tea or having a beer can add a comfortable richness and connection to a character, and explain lack of focus or a forced sense of comfort in a perilous or chaotic situation. (I was recently reading a Jim Butcher Harry Dresden book and experienced this.) For others, it can be a part of the necessity of life and the structure of the day. (Priscilla Royal's Medieval Mysteries would be a good example.) But believability? As long as they're not violating their nature - the one you've worked so hard on for we readers - food is not a requirement.

Well, every scene requires a setting, and it's been said that setting should always be another important character in your story.
So, why not make the setting colorful and interesting, and use it to compliment the primary action?
If you flit through all the possible food/eating settings, from home to fast food to restaurant to state dinner, etc., each one implies something about what's going on in the story.
My caveat, just don't spend so much time on the small details that the reader does drift away from the storyline. - J. J. Lamb

Great picture, Mysti. It almost made me want to go to Paris to see the place, but why go there when they have an Eiffel Tower in Vegas? As far as characters eating, I think it depends. Certainly, you can make a case for it: I eat, therefore I'm jam. Pass the toast, please.

Mysteries without food! I'm currently reading Cindy Sample's Dying for a Daiquiri. I enjoy the food references from the informational description of an imu pit for kalua pig to the amusing riffs on Donkey Ball snacks. Besides new info and amusement, food, as Priscilla points out, can characterize. Think of Martha Grimes' Aunt Agatha scarfing down Melrose Plant's petit fours or Kinsey Milhone slapping together a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. And then there's food as the vehicle for murder as in the peanuts of The Da Vinci Code.